ODE TO AUTUMN

Ode To Autumn is one of the maturest odes penned by John Keats. The opening lines describe the bounty of autumn season;

“Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun,

Conspiring with him how to load and bless,

With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run,

To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,

And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core.”

Fruits ripen in Autumn in England. This is time when fruit vines are loaded with fruits and sometimes the burden of the fruits become unbearable for the boughs. The fruits are ripened to the core. The net shells are filled with sweet kernel. The new flowers bloom and provide honey to the bees. The bees suck honey out of the flowers;

“Until they think warm days will never cease,

For summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.”

It means that the Autumn season plays a role of vital significance in the process of fruition. Even mists play considerable role in the drama fruition. Certain varieties of flowers bloom in this season. The sticky cells of the honey combs are filled to over flow with honey. So, there are a number of things that are worth appreciating in the Autumn.

After describing the salient features and multifarious blessings of Autumn, the poet goes so far as to describe the occupations. The poet has made penetrating observation and his powerful expressions are convincing and elaborate.

Autumn season is so attractive that it engages the attention of everyone. So, the poet says that all the people might have examined the autumn season at its climax. One who goes in the fields, may see the autumn’s bounty. One may see autumn sitting carelessly on the floor of the granary. Autumn takes the form of a tired winnower. It may also take the form of a woman who;

“Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,

Drows'd with the fume of poppies.”

Some time, autumn takes the form of a gleaner. A gleaner is a man or a woman who gathers ears of corn left behind by the reapers. This woman sits by the cider press and watches the apple juice patiently flowing out of the press drop by drop. The site of the cider press is also associated with Autumn.

All these operations of winnowing reaping, gleaning and cider pressing belong to Autumn. These operations are supposed to be performed by women. Autumn is seen here as a woman.

First, Autumn is seen as a woman doing the work of winnowing, that is separating the chaff from the grains. If someone wants to see Autumn, he may go to the fields and see a woman engaged in the winnowing work. The breeze ruffles the locks of her hair. This is one picture of Autumn.

In the third stanza, the poet describes the music of autumn which is distinguishable from that of Spring season in the terms of sweet songs.

“Where are the songs of spring? Ay, Where are they?

Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—"

When the sun starts setting, a soft glow kisses the stubble plains. The clouds in the sky looks like the bars of a gate.

“Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn,

Among the river sallows, borne aloft,

Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies.”

The poet describes everything in a forceful and convincing manner. The bleating of a full-grown lamb is heard from the hills. This the time when;

“Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft,

The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft.”

The ode shows Greek spirit and Greek way of writing more than any other poem in the English language. It is classical in its tone and setting.

To conclude, we may say that ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ and ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’ may have greater appeal to pathos but ‘Ode to Autumn’ is unique in its perfection and loveliness of scenic beauty.